Laurel Branch
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 16 of the next 29 nights read 16:19 UTC
- A night
- $20–$60Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 61All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Laurel Branch Campground is located on the shore of Rough River Lake in south central Kentucky. The 5,100-acre lake is a hometown paradise for visitors who love the outdoors, and more than two million visitors camp, picnic, fish, swim, boat and relax on the lake shore each year. Keep reading
Recreation
A wide variety of recreational activities and facilities are provided at the lake, including ample opportunities for boating and fishing. The most sought after fish are bass, crappie and catfish, and bass tournaments occur at the lake throughout the year. Additionally, pontoon, johnboat and jet ski rentals are available at the nearby marinas.
Facilities
Laurel Branch Campground offers 62 campsites, several of which have electric hookups. Most of the campsites are waterfront, while others are just a short walk away from the lake. Additional amenities include flush toilets, showers, playground, boat ramp, drinking water, nature trail, public beach, and fish cleaning station. Wi-fi is available from an outside source.
Natural Features
The rolling, forested hills of rural south central Kentucky offer an extraordinary setting for those who visit the lake. Rough River Lake provides views of ancient sandstone, shale and limestone cliffs. An abundance of water in the area, both surface and underground, has carved through limestone to create a myriad of sinks and caverns. The lake itself is home to numerous species of wildlife, including migratory songbirds and waterfowl.
Nearby Attractions
The historic Green Farm is adjacent to the lake. It consists of about 3,000 acres, a large ancestral home, an old water-powered mill and store and a golf course. George Washington once owned part of the land. Mammoth Cave National Park, which boasts the longest cave system in the world with more than 240 miles of mapped passageways, is about a one-hour drive away. Other nearby attractions also include the historic Holt House in Hardinsburg, the Jack Thomas House in Leitchfield, and the new Aquatic Center in Leitchfield. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (270) 257-8839.
Charges & Cancellations
Once a reservation has been created, there will be a $10 fee to cancel your reservation, change sites, or change dates. Cancellations made the day before you are scheduled to arrive through the day after your arrival date will also be charged the first night's use fee. No-show's are charged a $20 fee plus the first night's use fee. If your reservation is for only 1 night, and you have been charged the first night's use fee, there is no $10 or $20 service fee charged.
What the agency tells you
Off-road vehicles are not permitted.
Park Attendant can be reached while on duty at 270-257-8839. If no answer, contact the Rough River Lake U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office at 270-257-2061.
$5 per day boat ramp fee.
Everything else this campground posts · 4
Reservations will not be marked in advance at the campsite. Do not set up at any campsite without reserving the site first.
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Quiet hours are 10:00 p.m. - 6:00 a.m. Generators and other noise-producing devices must be turned off during this time.
Golf Carts are not permitted to be used in Laurel Branch Campground.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 61
- Hookups
- 48 electric, 48 water
- Longest rig
- 82 ft
- Paved pads
- 30 of 61
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- 52 of 60 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…the lake. Additional amenities include flush toilets, showers, playground, boat ramp, drinking water,…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Additional amenities include flush toilets, showers, playground, boat ramp, drinking water, nature trail, public beach, and fish cleaning station.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…toilets, showers, playground, boat ramp, drinking water, nature trail, public beach, and fish cleaning…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Swimming
- Night sky · 26th darkest of 60 in KY
- Bortle 4
41 of 124 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:19 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBookedClosed
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 15
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $20–$60 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
“Once a reservation has been created, there will be a $10 fee to cancel your reservation, change sites, or change dates. No-show's are charged a $20 fee plus the first night's use fee.” · this campground’s own no-show terms
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 16:19 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
62 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 61 mapped sitesAll 62 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 61 of the 62 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| A | A01 | standard electric | 48 ft | 50 amp | 75 ft | 156 ft | $30 | |
| A | A02 | standard electric | 37 ft | 50 amp | 75 ft | 136 ft | $30 | |
| A | A03 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | yes | 83 ft | 154 ft | $30 |
| A | A04 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | yes | 58 ft | 201 ft | $30 |
| A | A05 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 58 ft | 236 ft | $30 | |
| A | A06 | standard electric | 33 ft | 50 amp | 71 ft | 252 ft | $30 | |
| A | A07 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 72 ft | 307 ft | $30 | |
| A | A08 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 74 ft | 294 ft | $30 | |
| A | A09 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 57 ft | 347 ft | $30 | |
| A | A10 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 57 ft | 332 ft | $30 | |
| A | A11 | standard electric | 67 ft | 50 amp | 75 ft | 416 ft | $30 | |
| A | A12 | standard electric | 43 ft | 50 amp | 70 ft | 258 ft | $30 | |
| A | A13 | standard electric | 62 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 375 ft | $30 | |
| A | A14 | standard electric | 62 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 337 ft | $30 | |
| A | A15 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 64 ft | 211 ft | $30 | |
| A | A16 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 62 ft | 198 ft | $30 | |
| A | A17 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 227 ft | $30 | |
| A | A18 | standard electric | 38 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 231 ft | $30 | |
| A | A19 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 73 ft | 266 ft | $30 | |
| B | B20 | standard electric | 33 ft | 50 amp | 110 ft | 300 ft | $30 | |
| B | B21 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 195 ft | $30 | |
| B | B22 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 183 ft | $30 | |
| B | B23 | standard electric | 37 ft | 50 amp | 79 ft | 137 ft | $30 | |
| B | B24 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | 79 ft | 88 ft | $30 | |
| B | B25 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 71 ft | 70 ft | $30 | |
| B | B26 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 56 ft | 140 ft | $30 | |
| B | B27 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 56 ft | 187 ft | $30 | |
| B | B28 | standard electric | 51 ft | 50 amp | 63 ft | 129 ft | $30 | |
| B | B29 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 63 ft | 162 ft | $30 | |
| C | C30 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 59 ft | 90 ft | $20–$60 | ||
| C | C31 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 71 ft | 26 ft | $30 | |
| C | C32 | standard nonelectric | 70 ft | 59 ft | 91 ft | $20–$60 | ||
| C | C33 | standard electric | 42 ft | 50 amp | 78 ft | 27 ft | $30 | |
| C | C34/35 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 64 ft | 61 ft | $30 | |
| C | C36 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 64 ft | 81 ft | $30 | |
| C | C37 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 75 ft | 147 ft | $30 | |
| C | C38 | standard nonelectric | 82 ft | 70 ft | 83 ft | $20–$60 | ||
| C | C39 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 75 ft | 178 ft | $30 | |
| C | C40 | standard electric | 47 ft | 50 amp | 85 ft | 81 ft | $30 | |
| C | C41 | standard electric | 63 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 163 ft | $30 | |
| C | C42 | standard electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 54 ft | 65 ft | $30 | |
| C | C43 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 159 ft | $30 | |
| C | C44 | standard electric | 43 ft | 50 amp | 52 ft | 59 ft | $30 | |
| C | C45 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 77 ft | 120 ft | $20–$60 | ||
| C | C46 | standard nonelectric | 54 ft | 52 ft | 35 ft | $20–$60 | ||
| C | C47 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 83 ft | 21 ft | $20–$60 | ||
| C | C48 | standard nonelectric | 67 ft | 56 ft | 100 ft | $20–$60 | ||
| C | C49 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 79 ft | 25 ft | $20–$60 | ||
| C | C50 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 108 ft | 31 ft | $20–$60 | ||
| C | C51 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 96 ft | 47 ft | $20–$60 | ||
| C | C52 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 76 ft | 76 ft | $30 | |
| C | C53 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 76 ft | 85 ft | $30 | |
| D | D54 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 56 ft | 131 ft | $20–$60 | ||
| D | D55 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 58 ft | 183 ft | $30 | |
| D | D56 | standard electric | 52 ft | 50 amp | 46 ft | 240 ft | $30 | |
| D | D57 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 46 ft | 284 ft | $30 | |
| D | D58 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 47 ft | 286 ft | $30 | |
| D | D59 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 75 ft | 199 ft | $20–$60 | ||
| D | D60 | standard electric | 52 ft | 50 amp | 67 ft | 261 ft | $30 | |
| D | D61 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 83 ft | 155 ft | $20–$60 | ||
| D | D62 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 228 ft | $30 | |
| Shelter 1 | day use | 30 amp | yes | $50 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 62 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Axtel1.0 mi
North Fork (KY)1.8 mi
Cave Creek3.3 mi
Moutardier24 mi
German Ridge CampgroundHoosier National Forest · 25 mi
WAX26 miFrom Louisville, KY: Begin at ramp onto I-64 West toward New Albany/St. Louis, traveling 22.3 miles. Take the IN-135, Exit Number 105, toward Palmyra/Corydon, onto IN-135 South toward Corydon, traveling 16.7 miles. Continue on Bypass Road KY-79 for 2.1 miles. Turn right onto KY-79, traveling 10.1 miles. Continue on 1st Avenue, KY-79S for 495 feet. Turn a slight right onto US-60, traveling 11.8 miles. Turn left onto KY-259/KY-79, traveling 10.1 miles. Turn right onto KY-110, traveling .4 miles. End at 991 Laurel Branch Road, McDaniels, KY. Distance is approximately 74 miles with an approximate travel time of 1 hour, 20 minutes.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Leitchfield, KY
Typical weather
Typical October night 44°F, day 72°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 24°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Laurel Branch is in Kentucky’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Brett Guthrie (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →